The Excitement Never Ends!

Today was the last Parent’s Day Out, the free once of month thing at the daycare. We dropped the kids off (they are so happy it was their last time but we’ll certainly miss it!), anyway, we dropped the kids off and headed out to a great dive spot called “toilet bowl.” Lame name, awesome place where you walk about in about 2 feet of water for a few steps and then step off the ledge into a deep bowl that leads around to a long coral reef. You can only dive it when the wind is down and today was perfect. It was finally hot and that was nice, the other dives I’ve been on have been really cold where I am shivering and couldn't feel my toes. Today was perfect. We swam out until almost the time to turn around (half way through our air supply) when Tom spotted a small cave. He peered in and motioned for me to come check it out. I approached thinking I could see a sea snake on the wall, which we see all the time so it was no big deal. But as my eyes adjusted to the dim light of the cave I realized that right on the bottom, less than 10 feet away was a SHARK!!!! I couldn’t believe my eyes, if I were a cartoon character my eyes would have shot out of my head. It was about 8 feet long and just laying there. It was either a Reef Shark or a Nurse Shark, we didn't have a camera but it looked like this. For a second I thought I’d be okay and that I wanted to stay and check it out. But then I started picturing us accidentally waking it up and it deciding to swim out of the cave. That I couldn’t handle so when Tom asked if I was okay (using the basic “ok” hand single since you can’t talk while scuba diving) I motioned no and started to swim away. I wasn’t freaking out and needing to race to the surface but I didn’t really want to stay by the shark. So, being the good husband and dive buddy he took my hand (he told me later that was because he was afraid I would freak out and surface to quickly) and we swam away... checking behind us a few times. Just a few minutes later I spotted a huge sea turtle swimming our way. It came right in front of us and started swimming the direction we were going so we got to follow it for a long time. It was great to see it flying through the water. As we swam over another deep crevice I reluctantly looked in and saw another large form in the shadow. I was nervous thinking it was a small shark and wanted to swim away but it turns out it was just a 2 foot long fish. All around it was a great dive.

I wish I had stayed longer to let Tom check out the shark, he wishes he’d had his flashlight with him so he could see it better but I could see it plenty well. We were less than 10 feet from it... that’s enough for me. He’s actually off on another dive right now. A night dive with some buddies from work. Lucky for him I have no desire whatsoever to dive at night, it sounds like a real life nightmare to me to be out there in the pitch black looking for scary creatures with a flashlight. It terrifies me to think about it. Not to mention, sea snakes, the poisonous snakes we see on the bottom all the time, are nocturnal. No thanks. So he’s gone out several times for these night dives and is loving it. He’s definitely making the most of the last of his dive time here. I think for our 15 year anniversary we’ll have to finally do something to celebrate and take a diving cruise or something!

I had a fantastic birthday on the 29th. It started with an early run and then I sent Hayden off to school and Tom left for work. As I was coming back inside from seeing Hayden off when Tom pulled in the drive way. He jumped out and said “Oh, I forgot I don’t have to go to work today!” It was all a ploy. He’d arranged for a friend to watch the girls and we went and played tennis (which I am still terrible at), went out to brunch and then went shopping for souvenirs and furniture. It was awesome. When we got home that afternoon I took a nice nap, actually in my bed, it was great. I woke up and we all went out to dinner and had a nice time. We stopped by to get an apple pie because that is what I really wanted for dessert. Tom rented a movie so we could put the kids to bed and just relax. We got home and when I walked in the living room I heard a baby cry. I was so confused I just stood there in the dark for a second and then suddenly all my friends jumped up and yelled surprise! It was awesome, I had no idea. Tom had been setting me up all day. So he put the kids to bed and we hung out and played rock band with our friends all night. It was a fabulous birthday! The next morning we got up early, dropped the kids off with a friend and went out scuba diving. It was great!

One of my favorite things about my birthday was the constant birthday hugs and kisses the girls kept giving me. And Alyssa was the cutest, she said, “Mom, when I turn 4 I want a ballet cake. What kind of cake do you want?” Me, “umm...” Alyssa, “Do you want a watcher cake because you like to watch me do ballet?” What a great idea. I do like to watch her do ballet!

When I was tucking Hayden into bed he said to me “I wish you could just stretch forever so part of you could stay in here and I could hug it all night and the rest of you could go do the laundry.” Boy did I ever wish I could do that too!! He’s currently got this idea that he can get anything he wants if he gives me a hug... it sort of works. He wanted me to come with him on his school field trip so he was all hugs and smiles and then later told me “I knew you couldn’t resist if I did that!” We had a nice time on the field trip learning all about transportation and taking the bus and monorail down to the airport.

Danica is the sweetest, nicest, mostly loving girl ever I sometimes need to just remember that is a good thing I don’t want her to change. She is still so shy and sensitive and I just don’t know how to give her confidence. She is refusing to play in her soccer games because it just stresses her out to much, it’s too much pressure or something. Being fairly competitive athletic people it is hard for Tom and I to handle the fact that she is the only child standing out on the field crying for her mommy. But alas, like I said, she is such a sweetheart and competitive sports aren’t for everyone. Maybe when she’s a little older it will go better. In the meantime, she is continuing to excel at her gymnastics. She is the oldest and best in her class so that gives her confidence. Hopefully eventually it will sink in deeper and she will be able to handle being in a class where she isn't always the best... if anyone has ideas on how to help build her confidence levels I would love to hear them. I see other parents just saying “stop crying and get out there and play” but that doesn’t work on Danica. I don’t know what does.

Well, we are busy as ever getting ready to move, having way too much fun. Our week of spring followed by a week of rain left things officially hot the last few days. Even at 5am I am going to have to run in tank tops I am dripping so much sweat. So summer has started and I suppose that is good because it will help make me happy to leave. It is so hot!

They had the Hail and Farewell last night for Tom and everyone from the Dental Command got together and said some nice words over dinner. He’s really going to miss a lot of the great things about being here and some of the good people he’s learned from. It’s been great. I've been released from the Relief Society Presidency and asked to teach Alyssa's sunbeam class for our last 6 weeks here. Everything is winding down. We're playing hard and enjoying every minute of it!!